Chamber and committees

The Complex Pelvic Mesh Service provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) offers holistic care for women experiencing mesh complications. There are a number of consultants operating in the service allowing women a choice over who is involved in their care. Complementing this, and to allow women more choice, individuals can also opt to be referred to NHS England services for surgery, or can choose to travel to Spire Hospital in Bristol, or to Dr Veronikis in the USA.

Any woman seeking referral to the mesh service in Glasgow, NHS England, Spire Hospital or Dr Veronikis should initially discuss her case with clinicians within her own Health Board. If considered appropriate at that stage, she will then be referred to the specialist service in NHS GGC for consideration by a full multi-disciplinary team (MDT). If, after careful consideration by both the MDT and the patient, it is agreed that surgery is appropriate, she will then be given the option of receiving treatment through the Glasgow centre, or referral to an NHS England Specialist Centre, the Spire in Bristol, or Dr Veronikis, depending on her wishes.

Regardless of the treatment option chosen, initial assessment in the specialist service in Glasgow is extremely important as it ensures that the patient receives the proper consideration of a full MDT, and will receive care that is fully integrated with any pre- and post-operative care provided locally.

Public Health Scotland does not publish data at the level of detail requested. However, statistics relating to the waits patients experience for inpatient or day case treatment at specialty level are published up to 31 March 2022 and can be found here: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients 30 June 2022 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Both the Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are aware, and regret, that patients are experiencing longer than normal delays in accessing NHS care, including at the mesh removal service in Glasgow. Patients are, however, being seen, surgeries carried out, and concerted efforts are being made to reduce waiting times.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a new Agriculture Bill to Parliament in 2023.

The public consultation on proposals for a new Bill, “Delivering our Vision for Scottish Agriculture. Proposals for a new Agriculture Bill” was launched on 29 August and will now be open until 5 December. The consultation seeks views on proposals, which aim to assist in delivering the Vision for Agriculture, and suggests a legislative framework required to replace the current Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

The working group does not, in general, create new material separate from that created to organise the meetings such as agendas and meeting notes, which are now subject to publication. The Chair will take a view on proactive publication of any new material in line with FOI principles and the need to respect the confidentiality of blocks engaged in the Pilot.

As all the Railcards listed are GB wide national rail products and not ScotRail products, neither the Scottish Government or ScotRail holds information on how many people make use of the cards listed.

The member may wish to contact the Rail Delivery Group for information on the number of cardholders.

The Cladding Remediation Unit have employed 0 full time Communication staff since May 2021. The team currently has one dedicated staff member covering as both Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, and the Accord Service Design. This member of staff took up post in May 2022.

The new powers provided by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 enable local authorities to determine what is best for their own areas. I recognise that not every authority will want to run their own bus services, some may opt for a partnership or franchise approach. It is important that the options within the Act are fully explored to ensure they are appropriate for the area and are sustainable for local authorities' long term. Work is currently ongoing with local authorities and COSLA to determine how best to allocate funding in light of the emergency budget review.

As you know, we are also undertaking a Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares as we recover from the pandemic. As part of the Review, we are considering both the availability of services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes, which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry. We will also consider options that maintain and increase affordability for those who need it most, taking cognisance of the relative changes to the overall cost of travel.

This was discussed at the Cladding Stakeholder Group as an option and is currently being explored.

Whilst the Scottish Government funds the delivery of homes in rural areas to support local authorities’ Local Housing Strategies , rural investment has only been reported on since 2015-16. Data has therefore been provided for housing investment in rural areas from that year onwards in the following table. Individual project spend can be spread over a number of years and we do not collate information by year to show the size of project that spend is associated with. The average size of rural housing development approved across Scotland during this period was 15 homes.

The Single Building Assessment takes a holistic approach of assessing buildings. Following professional advice from fire engineers, splitting the process would not fulfil the critical life safety requirements of the Single Building Assessment.